Re: Blog: The Scars of Evolution.

On Mar 18, 6:01 pm, Treus <treusd...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
hersheyh wrote:
On Mar 15, 4:50 pm, Treus <treusd...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
raven1 wrote:
On Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:35:28 -0700 (PDT), Treus <treusd...@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
raven1 wrote:
On Thu, 13 Mar 2008, Treus <treusd...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

C) The evidence is consistent with, but not sufficient for
establishing, decent with modification from common ancestors,

What evidence would you consider sufficient?

What I would consider sufficient is a set of measurable processes
which together are sufficient (as empirically verified, not merely
handwaved) to produce the outcome being attributed to it.

Measurable difference: The genome sequence of chimpanzees and the
genome sequence of humans.
Measurable process: Assuming chance alone as the cause for the
observed difference (that is, assuming selective neutrality and the
rate at which random processes would fix selectively neutral changes),
is the process of selectively neutral fixation sufficient *by itself*,
without even having to invoke the much more rapid potential of
selective fixation, to account for the observed difference between
chimps and humans, given the time since divergence?

This is basically just a rephrase of the question. If the fixation
process alone had ever been shown to transform species S1 to species
S2 or feature F1 to feature F2, then we wouldn't be having this
discussion. My answer is no, meaning there is no instance.

Transforming one genome to another is not an operation that can occurs
in isolation. It only proceeds on paths consisting of viable
phenotypes, which is where difficulties can be encountered.

Ah, a solid claim that the space of viable phenotypes currently extant
is not path connected. Since you are always so keen to demand oberved
evidence from everyone else, I presume you have some solid observed
evidence to suggest that this is likely. Perhaps you have a particular
species in mind that is demonstrably not path connected to any other
species (along with the demonstration of such)? Perhaps you have some
models of genome space and some strong topological arguments?
Presumably you don't just have some hand-waving, and numbers pulled
out of the air? You see while there isn't definitive fool proof
evidence for common descent, there is a decent amount of
circumstantial evidence, from the various plausible development
pathways people have outlined, fossil histories that continue to meet
predictions, the commonality not just of DNA as an encoding mechanism,
but the large amounts of DNA shared even by radically different life
forms, and so on. Sure, it's not a notarized birth certificate and
full gene sequence for every generation in a lineal descent chain
spanning millions of years and demonstrating significant change, but
it is still way more evidence than you've put forward for your claim.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Part 1 (of 3): What are major aspects of evolutionary theory?
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  • Re: Top Scientific Evidence Against Evolution
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